Your Moon Sign

What Is It And Why Is It Important?

By Rebecca Brents

In Astrology, the Moon represents your emotions, your inner self, your instincts, habits, and reactions. The sign it occupied when you were born is your Moon Sign in your horoscope. Your Moon Sign describes character traits, feelings, and personal responses that are very familiar to you. In fact, it's common for people to relate to their Moon Sign qualities far more than their Sun Sign characteristics when finally they learn, through research, by having their Natal Chart interpreted, or simply by accident what their Moon Sign IS ... and what it describes in their personality.

Astrologers consider the Moon one of the three most essential elements in any horoscope -- along with the Sun and the Ascendant. To some, the Sun is the most important citizen in the celestial map. Others consider Moon sign information the missing dimension in Sun Sign Astrology -- and that its absence is a big reason why some people say Astrology doesn't work. But the Sun -- and Sun Sign Astrology -- continues to dominate pop culture, because it IS important and because its sign is usually easy to find.

The Sun stays in a Zodiac sign about a month; its progress through the parade of signs is steady and predictable. With just a birthday, you can pretty well classify anyone according to his Zodiac sign ... or at least come close if he happens to be one of those "born on the cusp." But those who say not everyone fits neatly inside the traits of to his Sun Sign have a point. People are individuals ... complex, multi-dimensional, and composed of different elements, inner selves, and traits other than those contained in their Sun Sign information.

They can also make choices, or wind up in roles and situations, where their Sun Sign qualities don't have much chance to develop, or where those traits don't serve them well. So they have to turn to other qualities that otherwise might remain in the background, and rely on them more often. One of the easiest alternate personalities to develop will be the cluster of characteristics represented by their Moon Sign. Moon Sign qualities represent your routines, impulses, "knee-jerk responses," and a personality you were encouraged to develop as a child, in your relationships with family members and in the role you played in your family circle.

If you recognize that you are "a different person" when dealing with family members, family issues and problems, and people you consider close enough to be "like family," there's a good chance you have a Moon Sign whose qualities, strengths, and perspectives differ quite a bit from the essential nature of your Sun Sign's description. This dual blend may be contradictory, stressful, inconsistent, and unpredictable -- especially when you're frazzled or under pressure. But, like everyone else, you do the best you can, and the result is the personality you've developed from the choices you've made and the things that have happened to you.

The reason your Moon Sign doesn't get nearly as much attention as your Sun Sign in pop culture astrology is because it isn't nearly as convenient to find. The Moon changes signs every 2 1/2 days. This means about ten days out of every month, the Moon will start the day in one sign -- and end it in another. To keep track of this fast moving celestial citizen and pinpoint where it was at the moment you or anyone else was born, you need a computer program that can cast your horoscope ... or access to several different books of astrological information and the knowledge of how to cast a horoscope by hand. (May I never ever, EVER have to do that again!! It is a tedious, boring, time consuming process!!)

But with your Moon Sign information, you have another dimension of your personal picture to consider ... and access to an essential collection of information about yourself. It starts to round out the emerging portrait of your character that a full interpretation of your horoscope can provide and may encourage you to explore the mysteries of the character facets the other eight planets and their position in your horoscope can reveal. If nothing else, an interpretation of your horoscope can help you appreciate the multi-dimensional work of art you truly are ... in all your spiritual and psychological splendor.

Your Moon Sign is, in many ways, "you" without the interference and conditioning of outer world experience ... and as such, it's the inner personality you revert to instinctively when your feelings are involved and your "buttons get pushed."

The Moon represents:

* your emotional self, your inner self, your moods and intuition
* your instincts, habits, memories, and automatic reactions
* your reactions, feelings and "personal responses"
* your early home environment, family conditioning, heritage
* your living arrangements, private life concerns
* qualities developed in your relationship with your mother or early maternal figures
* the way you relate to family members and people you relate to "like family"

When it is comfortable and expressing positively, Moon energy is benevolent, family-oriented, intuitive, sensitive, and compassionate. When it is uncomfortable and stressed, Moon energy is emotionally unbalanced, repressed, resentful, dependent, fearful, and anxious.

Learning your Moon Sign qualities, seeing how you work with them, express them, and reveal them in your attitudes and feelings increases your self-understanding, and helps you better appreciate and know intricate, multi-faceted being you truly are.